Shared Video memory reduction

Options
50Twuncle
50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
in Techie Stuff
My new Medion PC - i7 powered is not as quick as I expected - with a 3.4Ghz processor and 6Gb DDR3 RAM - So I ran windows performance rating - which has explained why....

Video memory (although adequate 2Gb ram) has been shared with system memory to give a slightly ridiculous/over the top 5821Mb total vid memory - I am now looking for a way to release the system memory (4Gb) - but can't see how
Any suggestions ?
«13

Comments

  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,817 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    Options
    What graphics card is in the machine? I assume the 5.8GB figure being referred to is the maximum the videocard can use if needed not the amount it is actually using as Windows 7 would only have a couple of hundred megs to run on. If you bring up task manager you can see how much ram is available to the system currently and how much it is using, I doubt you'll see the videocard using much of that up, if any at all if the graphics card has discrete memory.

    John
  • sk240
    sk240 Posts: 474 Forumite
    First Post
    Options
    Hi,Its not as fast as expected in what way?
    Does it have a mechanical hard disk or a solid state disk.
    Just for info, mechanical disks are much slower than ssd's
  • almillar
    almillar Posts: 8,621 Forumite
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Options
    Shared video memory is not what you think it is. You've got built in ('integrated' sounds better!) graphics, as in a chip on the motherboard, instead of a separate card, which would have its own memory chips on it. This chip is taking some of you 6GB system memory to use just for video. If it's using 2GB, that leaves the system with 4GB.
    What aspect of performance is slow? Please don't tell me you're trying to play games with integrated graphics!
    Anyway, to change the amount of memory, you go into the BIOS. You might find the setting under integrated peripherals or similar. I'd set it to 1GB, which means the rest of the system should have 5GB. But an i7 system with even 4GB of RAM shouldn't feel slow!
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Options
    Johnmcl7 wrote: »
    What graphics card is in the machine? I assume the 5.8GB figure being referred to is the maximum the videocard can use if needed not the amount it is actually using as Windows 7 would only have a couple of hundred megs to run on. If you bring up task manager you can see how much ram is available to the system currently and how much it is using, I doubt you'll see the videocard using much of that up, if any at all if the graphics card has discrete memory.

    John

    Its got a 2Gb Nvidia GT 545 - Which should be more than adequate without any shared memory.... ??
    Total : 6110Mb
    Cached : 4141Mb
    Available : 4080Mb
    Free : 0Mb
  • John_Gray
    John_Gray Posts: 5,823 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    Options
    If your operating system is 32-bit, that might explain what you are observing.

    32-bit operating systems cannot address more than 4 GB of RAM.
  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,817 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    Options
    21Twinkle wrote: »
    Its got a 2Gb Nvidia GT 545 - Which should be more than adequate without any shared memory.... ??
    Total : 6110Mb
    Cached : 4141Mb
    Available : 4080Mb
    Free : 0Mb

    What percentage does the physical memory show at the bottom right of the same screen?

    John
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Options
    John_Gray wrote: »
    If your operating system is 32-bit, that might explain what you are observing.

    32-bit operating systems cannot address more than 4 GB of RAM.

    It's 64bit
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Options
    Johnmcl7 wrote: »
    What percentage does the physical memory show at the bottom right of the same screen?

    John

    22% - I assume that answers my question ?
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Photogenic First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    edited 31 October 2012 at 4:46PM
    Options
    almillar wrote: »
    Shared video memory is not what you think it is. You've got built in ('integrated' sounds better!) graphics, as in a chip on the motherboard, instead of a separate card, which would have its own memory chips on it. This chip is taking some of you 6GB system memory to use just for video. If it's using 2GB, that leaves the system with 4GB.
    What aspect of performance is slow? Please don't tell me you're trying to play games with integrated graphics!
    Anyway, to change the amount of memory, you go into the BIOS. You might find the setting under integrated peripherals or similar. I'd set it to 1GB, which means the rest of the system should have 5GB. But an i7 system with even 4GB of RAM shouldn't feel slow!


    It does not have integrated graphics - The video card has it's own 2Gb RAM - It doesn't use system RAM - at least - I would prefer it not to................
    It still takes about a minute to boot up - compared to my old quad core 2.5Mhz / 4Gb -That used to boot up in 45 secs - this should be considerably faster..
  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,817 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Combo Breaker First Anniversary
    Options
    21Twinkle wrote: »
    22% - I assume that answers my question ?

    Yes, the task manager figures you quoted are a bit confusing - although there is no memory marked as free, there is still 4GB available to any application that requests any memory so the graphics card is not using that as video memory and likely never will. The feature may be there simply because cheaper cores need the feature to access shared memory due to having little or none of their own.

    Boot time is unlikely to be any faster than your previous machine unless you've upgraded to an SSD, the slow boot time is likely due to a bloated software install which isn't unusual for OEM installs.

    John
This discussion has been closed.
★ ★ ★ Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 343.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.7K Spending & Discounts
  • 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 608.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 173.1K Life & Family
  • 248K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards